The Barnyard Battle
About The Barnyard Battle
Peg-Leg Pete leads an army of cats against a farm held by mice, and Mickey has to survive a rough physical before he can enlist. He is handed a machine gun and sent up. His fighting is played as comedy, and it pushes the cats back. He finishes by hitting a line of advancing soldiers on the head with a mallet, and the mice hail him as a hero.
Cast & crew
More about The Barnyard Battle
Ub Iwerks directed. Walt Disney produced. Carl Stalling wrote the music. Celebrity Productions released it on June 1, 1929, with Powers Cinephone sound-on-film. It is the seventh Mickey Mouse short, and the fourth of 1929. Columbia later reissued it.
Themes
Background
Audiences in 1929 could still hear both wars in the music and the helmets. The short does not say which war it is staging.
Making
Iwerks puts Mickey through a rough induction, then a battle that quotes both the Civil War and the German helmets of 1914. The war on screen is never named.
Music
Carl Stalling scored it. The mice march to "Dixie" and celebrate to "Battle Cry of Freedom." The track is Powers Cinephone sound-on-film.
Preservation
A print survives. It is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The cats wear helmets like the German pickelhaube. Germany banned the cartoon in 1930 as offensive to national dignity.
- The mice march to "Dixie." The victory is scored to "Battle Cry of Freedom.
- A mouse officer's shout, "Company, forward march!", is the first full sentence spoken by a mammal in the Mickey series. Minnie had only managed "Yoo-hoo!" before that. The parrot in Steamboat Willie had already spoken two sentences.
- This is the last short in which Mickey is mouse-sized in a crowd of other mice.
- Walt Disney Treasures issued it on December 7, 2004, in Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929–1935.
Scenes
- Mickey is battered through his army physical, then issued a machine gun.
- He flattens a rank of cat soldiers with a mallet and is cheered.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (007 - The Barnyard Battle.webm)
- Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two (December 7, 2004)
Quotes
Company, forward march!
